Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A CHILD'S DAY, by KATHARINE TYNAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A CHILD'S DAY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When I was a little child
Last Line: And dead leaves on a grave.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hinkson, Katharine Tynan
Subject(s): Children; Day; Memory; Spring; Childhood


WHEN I was a little child
It was always golden weather.
My days stretched out so long
From rise to set of sun,
I sang and danced and smiled—
My light heart like a feather—
From morn to evensong;
The child's days are done.

I used to wake with the birds—
The little birds wake early,
For the sunshine leaps and plays
On the mother's head and wing—
And the clouds were white as curds,
The apple-trees stood pearly:
I always think of the child's days
As one unending Spring.

I knew where all flowers grew.
I used to lie in the meadow
Ere reaping-time and mowing-time
And carting home the hay.
And O the skies were blue!
O drifting light and shadow!
It was another time and clime—
The little child's sweet day.

And in the long day's waning
The skies grew rose and amber,
And palest green and gold,
With a moon's white flame:
And if came wind and raining,
Grey hours I don't remember;
Nor how the warm year waxèd cold,
And deathly Autumn came.

Only of that young time
The bright things I remember;
How orchard boughs were laden red,
And blackberries so brave
Came ere the frost and rime—
The dreary dark November,
With dripping black boughs overhead,
And dead leaves on a grave.





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